Bess Truman

Portrait of Bess Truman at age four

Bess was born as Elizabeth Virginia Wallace on February 13, 1885, in Independence, Missouri, to Margaret Elizabeth Gates and David Willock Wallace. Margaret was the daughter of a businessman, and David was a local politician. Bess was known as Bessie during her childhood, and she had three younger brothers (Frank, George, and David).[1]^{: 476–477} Her only sister died in infancy.[2]^: 449 As a child, Bess had a reputation as a tomboy due in part to her propensity for sports, including golf, tennis, horseback riding, shot put, basketball,[1]^{: 476–477} baseball,[3]^: 251 and ice skating. She practiced dance and etiquette, and she attended town balls and hayrides of the town's aristocracy.[2]^: 452

In 1903, when Bess was 18, her father committed suicide. According to the biographer David McCullough, the cause for his suicide is unknown, with speculation ranging from depression to mounting debts.[4] Bess spent the following hours pacing silently in her backyard, first alone and then joined by her closest friend Mary Paxton.[5]^: 12 Her father's suicide was scandalous, and the family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, for a year to avoid the community's attention.[1]^: 477 Bess later attempted to keep this part of her life a secret. After her father's death, Bess took responsibility for raising her younger brothers, and the family moved into the home of her maternal grandparents.[6]^{: 145–146} Bess's mother became a lifelong recluse, and the ordeal imprinted upon Bess the belief that a husband and wife should be close partners in everything they do.[3]^: 251 She refused to speak about her father for the rest of her life.[7]^: 314

After graduating from Independence High School (now known as William Chrisman High School) she studied at Miss Barstow's Finishing School for Girls in Kansas City, Missouri. Bess played on the women's basketball team, and she studied literature and French.[8] As a young woman, Bess enjoyed expressing herself through fashion and hats; in the words of a friend, "Bess always had more stylish hats than the rest of us did, or she wore them with more style."[9] After returning from school, she resumed her role as the head of the family, and she became involved with the community through her bridge club and her charity work with the Needlework Guild.[3]^: 251 It was at this time that she began going by Bess rather than Bessie.[2]^: 453

Harry and Bess Truman on their wedding day, June 28, 1919.

Harry S. Truman met Bess soon after his family moved to Independence in 1890, and the two attended school together until graduation.[3]^: 251 Many factors kept them from forming a closer bond in school, including their differences in social class and religion, Harry's time-consuming job at a drugstore, and Harry's inability to participate in athletics with Bess due to his thick glasses.[5]^: 7They sometimes studied Latin together, and he often volunteered to carry her books, but they did not become close friends.[7]^: 313

Bess had many suitors in the years after high school, but none won her love.[5]^: 11 In 1910, long after their time in school, Harry volunteered to return a cake plate to the Wallaces as an excuse to speak to Bess. They reconnected and began a courtship.[1]^: 477 Harry was insecure about his lack of money, and he attempted to impress Bess by purchasing tickets to shows and building her a tennis court. Bess' mother disapproved of the relationship.[10]^{: 209–210}

Harry proposed in 1911 in a long letter, which he later admitted was clumsily written, but Bess turned him down.[7]^: 315 He later said that he intended to propose again when he would be earning more money than a farmer.[11] They became informally engaged in November 1913,[3]^: 251 though Harry still doubted himself regarding his finances. Over the following years, the couple regularly corresponded while Harry traveled throughout the United States for his work in mining and petroleum. Bess wished to marry before Harry departed to fight in World War I in 1917, but he refused to risk making her a young widow.[1]^: 478 She worked to support the war effort while he was gone by selling war bonds, and she served on a committee for entertaining soldiers.[3]^: 252

Bess and Harry married on June 28, 1919, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Independence.[12] The newlyweds honeymooned in Chicago and Detroit[1]^: 478 and then moved into Bess's childhood home so she could care for her mother.[6]^: 146 During their marriage, Bess tried in vain to teach her husband the etiquette with which she had been raised.[3]^: 252 Their only child, Margaret, was born in 1924. Bess's two previous pregnancies had ended in miscarriages. Bess became the primary authority figure in Margaret's life, while Harry would spoil her.[3]^: 253

Bess held several jobs working with her husband, which provided more income for the Truman family. She was accounts manager at Truman-Jacobsen Haberdashery from 1919 to 1922, when the business went bankrupt. After Harry was elected county judge in the eastern district of Jackson County, she worked as his aide from 1922 to 1924 and from 1926 to 1934.[8] Corruption and violence were prominent in Jackson County politics at the time, and working with her husband in his early political career caused her great distress, including when they feared a plot to kidnap their young daughter. In addition to helping Harry in his political work, Bess also managed the family's household and finances. As part of her social life, Bess helped found the Junior Service League of Independence and a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.[1]^: 479

Bess and Margaret Truman at the 1944 Democratic National Convention

When Harry was elected as a senator from Missouri in 1934, Bess stayed in Missouri with her mother for the first year. After visiting Harry, she decided to stay, and the family moved to Washington, D.C.[6]^: 147 While Congress was in session during the first half of each year, they would live in rented apartments in Washington. When the session ended, they would return to Independence for the rest of the year.[1]^: 479 While her husband was in the Senate, Bess became a member of the Congressional Club, the P.E.O. Sisterhood, the H Street United Service Organization, and the Red Cross work of the group informally known as the "Senate Wives".[13] She joined her husband's staff as a clerk, answering personal mail and editing committee reports when he became chairman of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program.[14] She developed relationships with the wives of senators and cabinet members,[3]^: 254 though she did not attend meetings of senators' wives, as she found them boring.[10]^: 205 During her husband's political career, she helped him write his speeches, though she refused to give any of her own.[10]^: 207

In 1944, Harry was offered the Democratic nomination for Vice President of the United States. He had not sought the position, and it was a surprise to the Trumans when it was offered.[1]^: 480 When the position had previously been suggested to him, he had dismissed the idea out of concern for Bess and Margaret.[7]^: 317 When Harry accepted the role of vice president to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bess was not entirely pleased. She wanted to return to their life in Missouri, and she also feared that Roosevelt would die, which would make her husband the president.[8] Bess's position on Harry's staff was controversial during the campaign, but he retained her during the campaign and during his vice presidency.[1]^: 480 After the Democratic ticket won the election and Harry was sworn in as vice president, Bess became Second Lady of the United States. She found herself saddled with the associated social responsibilities, attending many events as a representative of the Roosevelts, often multiple times in one day.[7]^: 318 Bess served as second lady for 82 days before President Roosevelt died and her husband ascended to the presidency.[1]^: 480

After leaving the White House in 1953, the Trumans went back to Independence and the family home at 219 North Delaware Street, where the former president worked on building his library and writing his memoirs.[21] Upon arriving home, they were met with a large crowd of admirers, which Bess thoroughly enjoyed.[7]^: 323 In 1955, the Trumans went on vacation at a resort owned by Edwin W. Pauley in Coconut Island, Hawaii. That summer, they went on a road trip across the continental United States, but they were impeded by the attention they received everywhere they went.[1]^: 486

The Trumans toured Europe in 1956 and again in 1958.[1]^: 486 Bess fully recovered following a 1959 mastectomy in which doctors removed a large, but benign, tumor.[21] The Trumans made their first return to the White House in 1961 on the invitation of the Kennedys.[5]^: 575 When President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law in 1965, the Trumans were the first senior citizens to receive Medicare cards, presented to them by Johnson at the Truman Library.[22] At the time of her husband's death in December 1972, at age 88, she was 87, making them the oldest couple to have occupied the White House up to that time.[23]

Bess Truman (right) watching as President Johnson signs Medicare into law

Bess was dismayed in the 1972 presidential election, as she opposed the left-wing policies of 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern, and she felt that Thomas Eagleton had been unfairly treated when he was removed from the 1972 Democratic ticket. She agreed to be the honorary chairman of Eagleton's Senate reelection campaign in 1974, and she held a similar position for James W. Symington in 1976. She also supported Congressional candidate Ike Skelton due to the close relations of their families.[1]^: 489 While Harry's presidency had been heavily scrutinized after leaving office, Bess lived long enough to see a historical reassessment in the 1970s that portrayed him in a more positive light. Jimmy Carter sought her endorsement in the 1980 presidential election, though he did not receive it.[1]^: 488

Bess continued to live quietly in Independence for the last decade of her life, being visited by her daughter and grandchildren.[24] She received many visitors in Independence, sometimes upwards of a hundred in one week, and she often demonstrated a keen memory for names and details about people she had met in the past.[1]^: 488 Arthritis necessitated that she use a wheelchair in her final years, and she continued in her less active hobbies, reading mystery novels and closely following the Kansas City Royals.[1]^: 489 She would also reread an old love letter from her husband every day.[3]^: 259

Bess died on October 18, 1982, from congestive heart failure at the age of 97, and a private funeral service was held on October 21. Afterwards, she was buried beside her husband in the courtyard of the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.[24] She remains the longest-lived first lady in United States history at 97, followed by Rosalynn Carter at 96, Nancy Reagan and Lady Bird Johnson at 94, Betty Ford at 93, and Barbara Bush at 92. Truman is also the longest lived second lady in United States history.[23]

Portrait of Bess Truman by Greta Kempton

Truman kept a low profile during her tenure as first lady, and commentators often emphasized how little was known about her. Many contemporary reports about her contained inaccuracies and misrepresentations based on the very little that reporters could glean. Her refusal to discuss her political beliefs led the public to believe that she had no strong opinions of her own.[10]^: 211Bess destroyed many of her own letters after leaving the White House with the intention of making historical analysis of her life more difficult. Most of her surviving correspondences are those that were preserved by her daughter.[1]^: 487 She made only one television appearance, also on the initiative of her daughter.[2] Much of the historic record about Bess is derived from a biography written by her daughter and letters written to her by Harry. For this reason, historical analysis of Bess Truman varies considerably.[1]^: 490 Siena Research Institute polling ranked her as the 11th best out of 37 first ladies in 1993, but its subsequent edition in 2003 ranked her as 20th best out of 38.[25]

She was often contrasted with her predecessor, Eleanor Roosevelt. While Roosevelt was active in politics and an influential public figure, Bess' influence was largely felt behind the scenes at the White House.[10]^: 206 She would chide her husband when he lost his temper, to the point where her "you didn't have to say that" became an inside joke among the White House staff. Bess was popular among the staff, with whom she enjoyed friendly relations in contrast to her shy personality in public.[10]^: 213 Her input may have influenced her husband's decision making, but the extent of her role is lost to history.[1]^: 490

• Bibliography of United States presidential spouses and first ladies

• Daniel, Clifton Truman, ed. (2011). Dear Harry, Love Bess: Bess Truman's Letters to Harry Truman 1919–1943. Truman State University Press. ISBN 978-1-935503-26-2.
• Ferrell, Robert H., ed. (1983). Dear Bess. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393302097.
• Robbins, Jhan (1980). Bess & Harry: An American Love Story. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-12443-8.
• Sale, Sara L. (2010). Bess Wallace Truman: Harry's White House "Boss". University Press of Kansas. ISBN 9780700617418.
• Truman, Margaret (1986). Bess W. Truman. Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-529470-9.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bess Truman.

• Bess Truman at C-SPAN's First Ladies: Influence & Image